They Said 7up Makes All Meats Better, So We Tried!

Thanks SNS grills for sponsoring this video. On today's videos these beautiful steaks were marinated with something quite unique. I can say the same thing for these wonderful skewers as well, because I used a very unusual ingredient for us here in the U.S. and that would be this 7up. Now just hear me out before you think I'm crazy. My good friends from the Philippines have been using this to marinate meats for decades and I think they are on to something. And today I'm gonna run an experiment that I think it's gonna blow my mind. And here's how it's done. The first and most important ingredient is banana ketchup. And to make it it's quite simple because you just gotta throw everything into a blender. Starting first with white onions, followed by garlic, some chili peppers, cayenne pepper, turmeric, allspice seasoning, smoked paprika and finish it off with avocado oil. Blend everything on high and immediately throw into a large skillet. Start cooking it under medium heat, add some tomato paste and stir. As that's simmering you want to go ahead and grab some bananas. These are some little cute ones but in all honesty you can use any ones you like. Using the same exact blender throw them in, followed by some ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, some fish sauce, close up the lid and blend everything up once again. As now you want to go ahead and add that in. Mix everything together and start cooking it. To finish it up you want to add a generous amount of brown sugar, mix that until everything is fully dissolved, let it cook so everything can reduce. As in the end you are left with this banana ketchup. Nice and simple to make but now to combine it with our special ingredient 7-up. So first you want to add that into a bowl, followed by the banana ketchup, soy sauce, some lime juice, black pepper, brown sugar and garlic. Mix that up real good until everything combines and this is our 7-up marinade. Which is supposed to make every meat taste better? Well we're gonna find out right now as the most used meat for this marinade is this pork shoulder. So I went ahead and started chopping it up, cut it in small cubes. Doing this will give a lot more surface area to the meat so that we can marinate it to its maximum potential. After placing it inside of the marinating container I went ahead and poured a generous amount of the marinade inside. Then I mixed everything together to ensure they were fully coated with it, covered up the lid and used my hand pump to pull the vacuum. And after one hour in the refrigerator it was time to release the pressure because it was now ready. As you can see they are nicely marinated. We're not going to let any of the marinade go to waste. So I threw that into a pan and as soon as it started simmering I threw in some cornstarch slurry, which is just a mix of water and cornstarch. And as you can see as I'm whisking everything up it will start thickening up on you real quick. I'll be using this to baste the meats as it will give an incredible flavor. Talking about that the next thing to do is to go ahead and skewer them. That is pretty simple though just make sure to soak the skewers overnight that way they won't burn on you too badly. As now outside we go to get them grilled. And the wonderful thing about this grill is that it has already the slow and sear attachment which allows you to cook with two zones. And for these skewers that's what we want, super hot heat, nice and fast because the pieces of meats are super small. If you don't have enough heat you will never get it to char up and most importantly you will just steam because it's wet from the marinade. So you are really looking for extreme heat here. It is one of the reasons I love to use this grill. But once I was done grilling all of them check it out we have all of our skewers perfectly cooked, nicely charred up and exactly what I was looking for. And like I said previously our friends from the Philippines love this stuff on pork. And even though they use in different types of meat it was never tried on steaks. But we're gonna find out right now if it's gonna be good or not. So I went ahead and grabbed two beautiful New York strip, as you can see they are choice grade and perfect for this. I seasoned them well with a good amount of salt followed by freshly ground black pepper and garlic powder and they were now ready. One will be the control, the other one I first added a generous amount of the marinade into the container, place my steak in there, cover the whole thing up with even more marinade, place the lid right on top and immediately pull in the vacuum. Because as that was marinating I decided to go ahead and make an awesome side dish. And if you love shrimp you're gonna like this one as it is simple and easy to make. First grab some shrimp, the easiest way I know how to remove the vein is this. You want to grab a toothpick, place it right over here and you're able to pull out the vein that most people don't like. It's that simple friends. So after removing all of the shells and deveining them, into a bowl I threw in some cornstarch, followed by the shrimp we just deveined, tossed that up until everything was fully coated. As once I had a bunch it was time to make a quick batter. So into a bowl I threw in some all-purpose flour, followed by cornstarch, baking powder, one egg and some water. Mix that up real good until I had this kind of consistency. As now the only thing left to do is to fry them. So first they go into the batter and immediately into a 350 degrees fahrenheit oil. You want to cook them nice and slow, you're looking for that nice golden brown color. As once you have done a bunch you definitely want a sauce to go along with it. For this one into a bowl I threw in some butter, garlic, some parmesan cheese, parsley, a pinch of salt and black pepper. Mix that up real good and my garlic butter sauce is now ready. So to plate it I added the butter right in the middle, followed by a generous amount of the shrimps and in the end we have the perfect side dish to go along with some steaks. And I have a feeling that those steaks are going to be real good, because remember one of them have been marinating for quite some time in seven hour. So I went ahead and removed the air and take a look. Oh boy this one looks quite different. It is nice and soft and I only wish you could smell the marinade. I cannot wait to find out how this is gonna taste. As now I set them down on a cooling rack and outside we go to cook them. Like always the first thing to do is to put a nice wonderful sear. You want to make sure to set the grill to two zones cooking. Getting a crust as fast as possible is the key here and at the same time avoiding grill marks as much as possible. Keep flipping the steaks as many times as necessary by the way. As once you are happy with the crust don't forget to also sear up the edges. To finish it up you want to insert a thermometer and cook them in indirect heat until you reach your preferred doneness. As in the end check it out you are left with this a perfectly cooked steak which I'm hoping that it's going to taste fantastic with the 7-up marinade. We're about to find out right now. As now I say it is enough talking and it is time to eat. So let's do it! I know it looks good and before we try it I want to thank today's sponsor S&S grills. For all of you that have been watching me for a while you already know how much I love my S&S grill. My kettle grill is the main thing I use to make all of my b-roll and it has been for years. Well now S&S has released their latest masterpiece the master kettle with an all new next level design. The master kettle comes with a sleek black finish, a new heavy duty cart for stability and mobility. Trust me those steaks are not going anywhere while you cook. Plus it's got tons of storage space and a prep table built in too. But the real magic is the slow and sear deluxe insert. This is their patented charcoal basket that allows you to get a master chef quality sear and versatility to cook at low temperatures or even smoke with it. This grill really can't do it all. One of my favorite features is the easy spin grate which allows me to easily spin the grate to ensure I get that perfect crust and juicy interior. Not to mention that it's loaded with pro features like a lid cradle, built-in temp cage, a probe port and adjustable smoke hole. I love my old kettle grill but the new master kettle is a massive upgrade that can do everything my old grill did and more. So if you're interested in S&S grills check them out on the link in the description because now let's get right back to it. All right everybody and here we got our beautiful feast. Gentlemen what do you guys think huh? Steak, chicken, maybe, maybe and shrimp I'm excited. All protein except a little bit here we got some deep fry but uh you know we gotta keep this man healthy. Mm-hmm we're going all around the world with these types of proteins Guga I like this man. 100% by the way it's not chicken it's pork. So here's the deal I want to know your honest opinion on this two steaks right here. The experiment is all about these two steaks okay this is just extra because we hungry. Oh okay I was wondering if this is two side dishes or how this is working. No not at all we're gonna try this as well and this is also but it's mainly about this and today unlike other experiments I'm actually going to tell you what the experiment is all about. So here's the deal my good Filipino friends they usually use 7-Up on a lot of their marinades. Oh. So this has 7-Up all over the place okay. Oh my god Angel likes Coke but I like Sprite and 7-Up. Me too, me too. I want to know if you feel it or if the 7-Up is adding something or you just love the overall marinade of these two little things over here. Just be honest tell me how it is enough talking and let's go. Right here grab your skewer yes so this is more like the traditional version on how they do it okay. This Filipino pork skewer I really want to know you guys honest opinion on this one here because I'll tell you one thing guys there's one thing that you guys cannot tell when you're watching the video and that's the smell. Tell them. Dude this smells so freaking good. I don't know there's like the marinade it's like sweet there's a charcoal smell to it I don't know. It smells freaking good bro can we can we eat this now? Enough. Cheers everybody. Cheers. Oh my god bro. Oh that's good. That is good. I love the char. It's it's so different though it has a nice porky flavor but there's like a hint of sweetness there that's really nice and like you're saying like I guess the marinade or the sugars caramelize very well when you're cooking this so like you have a nice crispy exterior but it still has the flavor of that sweet marinade. Yeah it's very light too. Yeah. It's not very powerful what do you think so much you like? There's only one flaw it's not very salty but other than that the charcoal like he was saying the charcoal and the sweetness goes very well I have no complaints. You are right it's a lot more sweet than it is savory. That is delicious I highly recommend you giving this a try everybody it is fantastic and like Sebastian said more towards the sweet side. So I'm wondering how it's gonna work with a steak and we're gonna be honest but first shrimp. Oh surf and turf baby. Yeah shrimp, shrimp, shrimp. Okay so obviously we got some uh nice butter so go ahead and do a little bit of the dunkage on that butter over there. Leo I want to know your honest opinion in there. How does it smell guys? I want to know your honest opinion. That butter smells incredible it's I'm so excited for this right now. A lot of garlic on this one. All right enough talking let's give it a go. Cheers everybody. Cheers. Oh man. Seafood and meat are the perfect marriage man that is so delicious. I love how the breading on the shrimp is a little bit thick so that sauce seeps into it absorbs all of it and you can taste that delicious buttery garlic flavor in every bite and this is something Angel would not appreciate. No I appreciate it. If you are wondering why the sauce looks like this a little melty right now everybody it's just because I put it on a food warmer to warm up. But you like? No it's delicious. Okay enough but can we try on the experiment because we can tell you right away with pork is delicious but I'm not quite sure about the steak because they also have something that's called banana ketchup. Banana ketchup? Yeah. No I've never heard that. Fair enough. Now let's try the first one here to see how if it's an improvement or not. Please dig in Sebastian. So is this the control steak? Always. We gotta let you know if it's an improvement or a downgrade. Let's see. You ready? Cheers everybody. Cheers. That's so good. That's good. Oh damn that's really good. If you guys thought that those skewers got a nice char that steak has a much better one let me tell you. Again feel that strong charcoal flavor and this thing is juicy. Savoring up for you? Oh man. I just reminded myself how much better beef is than pork. I'm sorry I need to try something. Oh you're going in. That's not be good. That's crazy. That is a good steak. That is delicious. Let's try the next one. Please dig in. I mean it smell different or no? It smell weird? It's not weird but it definitely smells different. It smell a little bit like this one. Yes exactly. It has a lot of marinade. I want to see how this banana ketchup seven up marinade is gonna taste. All right well let's find out right now. Cheers everybody. Cheers. Okay maybe it's better with this one. Definitely better with the pork for sure. This one you lose a lot of the beefiness. I feel like you still get that slight sweetness. If the sweetness was a little bit stronger it would be much more enjoyable but the sweetness is so mild. It's a bland steak. It's bland there's just nothing to it. Yeah it needs more salt. Yeah it's more savoriness. Yeah 100% even though that it was marinated and savored but it has that little hint of sweetness which you would expect from seven up and it goes perfectly well with pork but with beef I'm not loving it. I still ate the whole thing because I'm hungry but it's definitely not better than the control I think. I will say this is not bad but it's definitely not better. I won't have that again. No? No. This I will always. This this yeah and the control but the experiment. Forget that one. We will always tell you guys like it is everybody. It didn't work out so much for beef but it definitely worked out for pork. But those are the results. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you did hit that thumbs up. If you're not a subscriber be sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next one. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.